“I’m not sure he shoots the puck, but he dekes the hell out of it. He has great hands and is very, very quick and has some explosiveness to his game. First time I’ve seen him live, and he is going to make it very interesting, and I like his battle level. He is a case in point to the interpretation of what I’m giving the players might be lost a little bit in translation, because he was the first forechecker on just about every drill and that wasn’t necessarily his need, but we like him.”

Very pleasing to hear… hopefully he gets an extended look. Bear in mind, today Omark was put with Jones and Fraser to test his ability to cycle. Sounds like he past at least the initial test.

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Who rumors that a guy passed away when he isn’t dead yet? Damn you, Twitter.

“Pat Burns just called me. Seriously,” McKenzie posted. “Here’s what he said, ‘Here we go again. They’re trying to kill me before I’m dead. I come to Quebec to spend some time with my family and they say I’m dead. I’m not dead, far f—— from it. They’ve had me dead since June. Tell them I’m alive. Set them straight.'”

edit: for those wondering what this article is about…. CTV and several others had reported that Pat Burns passed away this morning. This post was initially to state that, but has since changed to what you see now.

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So Training camp kicks off this Saturday, with an open practice at Rexall place at 8:15AM. I’m considering going to get a preview of these guys, live, although I’m having a tough time getting up early on a Saturday to go see a practice (especially when I’ve been going to bed too late on work nights as it is). I think really there probably isn’t too much excitement to see, until they start to scrimmage. So maybe I’ll just enjoy the beauty rest.

Anyways, it was announced yesterday that Tambellini has invited every Oiler from the Young Stars tournament to the main camp, so it sounds like they’re keeping all options open for positions on the big club. The Young Stars tournament was a big success with the Oilers rookies finishing with a 2-1 record.

The tournament left me with a few extra names to be excited about that I wasn’t necessarily normally expecting, including Tyler Pitlick. He seems to be one of those complete package players. I didn’t get to focus much on the defensive side of his game, but he should a great compete level and used his size a lot. I might be all caught up in “saw him good”, but last night in particular he had Continue reading 'From Rookie Camp to Training Camp'»

Well, the Oilers are 2-0 so far in the Young Stars tournament, earning a 5-3 win over Calgary’s future stars (stats available here). Missing from the lineup were the Oilers big 3 for this game – Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, and Magnus Pääjärvi (the fancy dots are for you, NorweiganOiler :P).

Alex Plante seemed to be the biggest stand out for the Oilers last night, with 2 goals (one an empty netter, but in fairness it was a very nice play for him to step up in the neutral zone to steal the puck away). Other goal scorers last night were Tyler Pitlick, Chris Vande Velde and Mike Thomas (who was set up beautifully by a behind-the-back pass from Ryan Martindale). Tyler Bunz played a decent game and even kept the team in it several times as the skaters scrambled to contain the Flames’ persistent attack.

Tonight, the Oilers Young Stars will face off against the San Jose Shark’s equivalents. The Sharks are 1-1 in the tournament so far with a 4-1 win over the Ducks on Sunday and a 5-3 loss at the hands of the Canucks on Monday.

More details to come, when they are available.

UPDATED 1:10PM:

Here are the tentative lines for the Oilers. As you can see, they will be playing the top 3 together, with Hall on the dot. Also, Jeff Petry returns.. good to hear.

TEAM COMPARISON

STATS

2

GP

2

1

W

2

1

L

0

0

OT

0

.500

W%

1.000

3.50

G/G

4.50

3.00

GA/G

2.00

3-14 / 21.4%

PP

3-14 / 21.4%

9-11 / 81.8%

PK

7-9 / 77.8%

34.0

S/G

28.0

27.0

SA/G

33.0

UPDATE After the Game:

Just a quick note here for those that missed it. The top line of MPS, Hall and Eberle looked good. MPS and Hall seem to have a bit of chemistry together. Really though, all 3 work well together and show signs that they will be very good players. Pääjärvi was just a step above everyone though (on the Oilers, that is). He is one heck of a player. Consider me sold on what Hemsky and Forsberg have said about him. He’s got speed out the ying yang, and good hockey sense.

Also, keep an ear out on news about Alex Plante. According to Jason Gregor, he took a punch to the back of the head, but he also looked like he hit his head on the ice, sans-helmet.. so that might be what it was. Anyways, this would be his second concussion, if that’s what ends up happening.. and that’s not good news. Hopefully he’s alright. He left the game early… I’m hoping that it was just precautionary.

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